I thought I would take it apart....

[skyway]

I had an old radiator from a ls430 kicking around so I thought I would take it apart to see what the hoo ha is with the ATF pipe inside and .. well here are the photos make of it what you will 🙂

[LexusRbest]

How easy did the caps come off the end of the heat exchanger pipe?

I am shocked there is not more surface area to transfer the heat and also if fluid pressure built up in box would it  not blow the caps off the end of that tube.?

[skyway]

There are no caps its a tube in a tube,,, i think brazed in.

The coolant then flows through the tube maximising the contact surface area, its a very thin space for the ATF to flow through I thought it would be a solid pipe If im honest

[LexusRbest]

Wow ! That increases surface area, but it wont take much to clog it .

Mine leaked in a previous life and although rad was replaced , gearbox Solenoids are playing up.

[runsgrateasanut]

If its from your Car its possibly Post the problem being recognised, although this is dated 2006.  Clip from a Merc forum.  May or may not be able to find the name on the Rad.  

#2 • Aug 10, 2010

FAULTY RADIATOR COOLER TANKS
Causes transmission failure

According to Mercedes Benz Star Bulletin #P-B 27.55/50f, dated March 24, 2006, there is a problem with Valeo radiators up to production date 9/2003 installed in models:

[The-Acre]

Are you certain that's an LS430 radiator?  I took mine apart once and it's completely different, mine had a finned aluminium cooler inside, somewhere on the forum are the photos I posted.

[The-Acre]

There you go, I found my one.

 

[skyway]

Yeah I am sure.... I guess all rads are not built the same.. which is a bit disconcerting.

I don't like worrying about things that might go wrong while I am driving (which I do) so before I fitted the kit from Paul Frost.... it was not up to scratch at all, lowest quality everything.

So after it went horribly wrong I decided to just change the rad and be done with it but I can not just drive and bury my head in the sand and thats why I took it apart to see what size cooling kit i could get away with.

Just a side note I have used Paul Frost for loads of things which have been great he has really come through for me in the past and I hope in the future But those kits are a pile of crap.

I am thinking of fitting one of these as there would be no internal restrictions (as the pipe blew off mine emptying all my atf on the road ... sorry who ever had to clean that up)

https://www.mishimoto.co.uk/mishimoto-universal-transmission-cooler-kit.html

of course I will upgrade the hose clips

[The-Acre]

My one above was the original Denso.  I did fit an oil cooler to a previous one but I really feel a bit more confident if I've got the original setup.

[The-Acre]

This is the one I fitted some years ago but unfortunately I don't have any links to it but it was a sturdy item.